Commercial Interiors UK is the UK’s country member of the FEMB with responsibility for the economic group, and Julian Roebuck of Gresham Office Furniture represents Commercial Interiors UK on the FEMB Board. All Commercial Interiors UK members qualify for free access to FEMB data such as the top 100 European office furniture company results and a country revenue analysis from Eurostat. Our aim is to improve the FEMB information available to members, so if there is date or information that you would like to receive from the FEMB and which is not readily available from other sources then please email us at info@commercial-interiorsuk.com
About FEMB
FEMB is the European Association for office furniture manufacturers and associations. It fosters standardization and harmonization amongst the European countries, supports communication and exchange between members and industry stakeholders and provides economic information on the development of the office furniture industry.
The office furniture industry has become increasingly international in the last decades. At the same time national associations in smaller countries have faded away for the individual size of their market or number of manufacturers. Thus an exchange on European level with the aim to collaborate also with other international organizations is the best way to stay in contact within our industry.
European Sustainability Standard
When it comes to the world and the growth of population and industrialisation our attention rightly must turn to sustainability and the FEMB have taken steps to bring a greater understanding for the Office Furniture industries.
The world has many environmental and sustainability schemes for office and non-domestic furniture, producing a confusing choice that will be helped tremendously by the introduction of the FEMB Standard and the European level-certification. Rather than add to the list of standards and certifications, they will provide an umbrella for the various European Country schemes.
In order to face the proliferation of certifications schemes, labels and voluntary standards covering the environmental and social sustainability of furniture products, the FEMB decided in 2010 to adopt a proactive approach and start a process of harmonization existing material and provide a sustainability certification scheme of its own for Europe.
The “level” certification programme, follows the experience gained by BIFMA in North America and proceeds along a similar path to provide a voluntary certification scheme, specifically designed to cover the environmental and social sustainability of companies products.
We now have a pan-European certification scheme for the sustainability of office furniture. So far in Europe manufacturers still have to meet different environmental requirements and get different certifications depending on the market of destination of their products. This entails additional costs for producers and difficulties for clients. level will not substitute at once the national certifications but indicates a common European path to be followed and a common methodology to present the environmental characteristics of a product in a clear, easily understood manner with a common language that gives end users the ability to make easy comparisons
With the new FEMB certification, customers will be able to make informed choices about commercial furniture that exceed single attribute eco-certifications. The new FEMB mark will identify that a product has been checked by an independent third party certifier. A numeric scaling from 1 to 3 will indicate what threshold of certification it has achieved.
For manufacturers’ conformity to the FEMB standard will facilitate trade across geographic borders, will provide cost savings and will reduce wasted time and resources, usually needed to chase different requests from different national markets. For customers the FEMB standard and level certification will provide a reliable tool to compare the environmental and social impacts of furniture products coming from any country. Certification has started in 2017 with a number of companies already well advanced with their preparations level and the cooperation of BIFMA and FEMB is a long term programme with the objectives of simplicity, harmonization and constant improvement on sustainability.
The new standard and level certification is a long term programme with the objectives of simplicity, harmonization and constant improvement on sustainability.
The new standard and level certification is a long term programme with the objectives of simplicity, harmonization and constant improvement on sustainability.
Click here to download the 'Level Guidance to Applicants'